HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — At the Public School Engagement Forum on Saturday, Guam Department of Education representatives acknowledged many of the challenges that have placed GDOE in the spotlight this school year, but it was also a learning opportunity for officials, as stakeholders shared recommendations to address those challenges.
Parents, teachers and staff in attendance at the second engagement forum, held at M.U. Lujan Elementary School, divided into groups and shared similar concerns over school lunches and school aide coverage as in the first forum.
“So a lot of the challenges kind of tie into each other. The biggest concern was dealing with how they handle special education needs being met, active accountability or lack thereof,” shared a group representative.
According to the representative, parents noted that getting a response from the special education department at times took six months “or there wouldn’t be any action unless parents pushed the issue,” the representative said.
The group recommended that the federal government take over the special education department, but stakeholders also brought up concerns related to health and safety.
“Some of the challenges are from the damages from Typhoon Mawar that we experienced with flooding, the fence line. … And then they also indicated the challenges we face are maintenance, safety at the school sites and sanitary permits held up during the school years,” an attendee from one of the groups said during the forum.
The attendee was part of a group of stakeholders who also recommended how to address the issues they spoke about.
“A 100% audit of schools is suggested by the parents,” the group representative said.
Another challenge raised was related to curriculum and instruction within GDOE.
“Recommendations were better textbook supplies,” said the stakeholder. “Reinforcement, … tools, tutors.”
Over the years GDOE has not had enough funding to purchase textbooks, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, the departments were able to purchase textbooks for different subject matters and grade levels.
It was pointed out that one of the challenges in improving GDOE has been a lengthy procurement process.
“We can make all of the recommendations, but it comes down to just legislating changes to the procurement process. I think recognition of the challenges and recognition of work being done in the department but still saying there’s still a lot of things that not only the department but all of the community partners have been working,” a group representative said.
